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bogus comments on An argument that animals don't really suffer - Less Wrong Discussion
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Animal cruelty could be a case where our evolved intuitions mislead us: we feel as if animals are suffering and empathize with them (even though they aren't) because they are visibly in pain. In fact, I assume that most people would feel some mild aversion to animal "cruelty" even if they knew with certainty that the animals in question lack sensory awareness, because our evolved intuitions cannot be overridden without some effort.
There's a lot of cultural variation there-- the animal fights in the Roman coliseum, bull-fighting,, and bear-baiting are all examples of culturally supported use of animal suffering as part of entertainment.
Plus the infamous cat-burning in Paris.
Cat's? They burned cats? Why on earth would they bother burning cats? It's witches, wood or nothing!
This is why cruelty to animals is useful as an indicator of sociopathy in humans.
I wonder if torturing Sims is also correlated with sociopathy?
They may be too few players who don't to test.
My housemate's favourite sim pastime was creating a house for the cast of Buffy and Angel... complete with a graveyard to patrol. Swimming pools without ladders are dangerous apparently.